1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to actuators and more specifically to actuating actuators using phase change material.
2. Description of the Related Art
Micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) based switches potentially have a very low resistance, a large on/off resistance ratio, and relatively small form factors, making them good candidates for radio frequency switching applications, such as switching antennas in a mobile phone for operation in a different frequency band, or for power management applications in multi-core microprocessors, such as switching unused cores off. The basic principle of a MEMS switch is analogous to a macroscopic relay, i.e. a spring loaded switch, typically a cantilever beam, is actuated up or down to open or close a metallic contact. In order to make a good contact, relatively large actuation forces are needed. To date, most MEMS switches use either piezo-electric or electrostatic forces to actuate the cantilever beam and thus open or close the switch. One problem of these techniques is that power is required to maintain the switch in one of the two states: either open or closed, depending on the design of the switch.